This invention relates to a method and an apparatus for forming non-woven fibrous webs which include as a component a quantity of short cellulosic papermaking fibers of about 1/4 inch or less in length.
It is known to employ lickerins for separating fibers from compacted sheets of fibers. One commercial type equipment suitable generally for separating fibers from compacted sheets and blending fibers of several types together into a non-woven web is the Rando-Webber, a unit manufactured by Rando-Machine Corporation, Macedon, N.Y., formerly C. C. of Rochester and employing a lickerin device.
Long fibers of 1/2 inch and above, used as reinforcing fibers, we have found may be readily separated from compacted sheets of the fibers in normal lickerin operation.
Various expedients have been employed in an attempt to adequately employ such equipment in attaining short fibers of papermaking length in a substantially individualized state, and then blending the short fibers with others in the course of lickerin rotation. We have found that in the usual lickerin arrangement compacted sheets of short cellulosic papermaking fibers (1/4 inch in length and less) resist fiberizing and tend to result in fiber clumps and clogging of the teeth of the lickerin. This requires frequent equipment cleaning and in some cases additional equipment directed to fiber clump removal.
The present invention is directed to modifying conventional lickerin practice to materially improve equipment operation and the fiberizing of sheets of short cellulosic fibers which may be blended in the equipment operation with longer reinforcing fibers or the like.